Atlantis: Milo's Return (2003)

Terrible, which is very disappointing given how impressive the original is. Michael J. Fox's departure as Milo immediately lowers the expectancy of the film, as does the instant sign of the animation being inferior. The plot starts off mildly interesting, even if it does feel like a 'What's New, Scooby-Doo?' story, but quickly loses it with two poor plots. It is one rounded off premise, though it's practically still that annoying multiple stories rolled into one thing that Disney so often do for sequels. The film takes place, almost entirely, away from Atlantis which is utterly pointless. I had expected we'd see more of the world we left in the 2001 production, sadly they immediately revert back to the 'real world' which is massively less intriguing. None of the voice cast or the characters themselves are memorable, they force a new one called Obby, a lavadog, into the mix which doesn't work whatsoever; he is just used to advance the plot at one particular point. As you can tell, I didn't like 'Atlantis: Milo’s Return' at all. Everything from the animation to the pacing is just so bad, in my opinion of course.

We start off watching the destruction of the legendary city before advancing several thousand years to meet "Milo" - a rather geeky young man whose grandfather had been obsessed with the mystery surrounding the lost continent. Gazillionaire "Preston Whitmore" recruits him on a perilous expedition to try and find the truth - so equipped with a submarine and a crew you just know have another agenda, off they go. The first forty minutes of this over-long adventure is much more reminiscent of something from Jules Verne, only spent on elongated character establishment scenarios, some borderline slapstick humour and by the time the film gets anywhere near it's sharp end, I could already feel a sense of ennui setting in. Michael J. Fox does inject some character as the young lad, and James Garner has his tongue firmly in his cheek as the completely untrustworthy "Rourke", but that can't really inject enough to create any sense of pace into this competently, but unremarkably, animated feature. The style of the artistry, though colourful, is clearly computer generated. The animations lack depth or texture and coupled with a really average storyline leaves this in a sort of Disney limbo. It is certainly not as bad as some that were produced ten years earlier, but it is still factory-style output that lacks for imagination and any of the traditional uniqueness that this studio used to deliver. It is watchable enough, but pretty forgettable.